Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hickups

An item in the SMH today caught my eye when it described the audience at the Sydney Writers' Festival as 900 credulous fools. The speaker was the notorious David Hicks, an Australian incarcerated and tortured at Guantanamo Bay, and he was given a standing ovation.

The Sydney Writer's Festival seems an unlikely gathering point for 900 credulous fools, but that's how the author of the piece, Ted Lapkin, describes them. Ted, bless his cotton socks, works for the authoritative-sounding Institute of Public Affairs, which according to that pinko publication Wikipedia, is an advocate of free market economic policies and by sourcewatch.org (anti-tobacco, so probably another commie front) as "a right-wing, corporate funded think tank based in Melbourne."

Interestingly, the name John Roskam is linked to the IPA, for whom he writes. In an article titled Turning up the heat on climate change alarmists he quotes one Professor Bob Carter numerous times. Turns out Carter is also a member of the IPA.

Postscript Feb 1202An article in the SMH mentions that sensitive documents unwittingly revealed by US conservative think tank The Heartland Institute list among those it has made payments to include Australian scientist Bob Carter.